A study of the unemployed in Shanghai: Social support systems, individual responses and reemployment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among three major variables. The first variable is the active responses from Xiagang Zhigong, the unemployed workers with Chinese characteristics, which consisted of cognitive appraisal and job search behaviors for reemployment. The second one is the multiple social support systems which are composed of informal social support, financial welfare and formal services. And the third one is reemployment status. Triangulation of data collection methods, including a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview, was used to gather and analyze data in order to describe basic features of those variables, and to test the following hypotheses. (1) The more social support Xiagang Zhigong obtain, the stronger their active responses will be. (2) The more active their cognitive appraisal are, the more job search behaviors they will engage in. (3) The more job search behaviors they finish, the better their reemployment status will be.;The research findings about the three variables are as follows. First, Xiagang Zhigong's active responses were found to be not positive enough. They basically felt that their unemployment was externally driven, and that unemployment was a very serious problem. Concerning their job search behaviors, informal contacts through friends, relatives and former colleagues were most frequently used to find jobs, followed by formal channels through the government and direct applications for jobs by themselves. Secondly, it was found that Xiagang Zhigong were not able to get sufficient social support. They got only a little informal social support from relatives, ex-colleagues and friends, which was mostly emotional support. The financial welfare they obtained was minimum. Very few unemployed workers were covered by more than one financial assistance program. Most of them were able to get assistance to meet their basic needs at a subsistence level. Moreover, the formal services they got were also not sufficient. Most of them got nothing. Thirdly, the data showed that about forty percent of Xiagang Zhigong found job successfully. Generally, the successful workers started to hunt job six months after they lost their job, and that they got their new position after ten months' job seeking. Nevertheless, they were dissatisfied with the reemployment quality in terms of income, position and the job as a whole.;On the hypotheses, all except those relating to the appraisal of intensity and financial welfare were supported.;Some differences were found between western theories and the findings of the study. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...